So far, I'm into this for just about $4000. I'm spending roughly 62 cents on each library.

I'm paying for postage, because Julia compiled the library list, which cost her a pretty penny. She's also paying to print the interview (about $350) and she supplied the library labels ($200) and her own brochures.

Libraries do their ordering from catalogues supplied by the publisher, by catalogues supplied by the distributors (Ingram and Baker & Taylor,) and through reading reviews in Library Journal, Kirkus, PW, and Boolist, plus others. Patron requests and word-of-mouth also are a factor.

I earn 55 cents for each paperback sold, $3.44 for each hardcover, and between $5 and $8 for each audiobook.

To earn back my investment, I'm going to need to sell 570 audiobooks, or 7272 paperbacks, or 1143 hardcovers, or any combination thereof.

I have two hardcovers in print, one paperback, two MP3s, two cassettes, and two CDs. I'm also got another paperback, hardcover, MP3, CD, and cassette that I'm including information about, coming out in June of 2006.

So basically, I'm selling fourteen things.

The brochure includes pictures of the book covers, blurbs, ISBNs, ordering info, brief synopses, contact info, and reviews. It took me 8 hours to create, and looks pretty good.

The interview is fun, light, but also imparts some detailed info about each of our series and why we love libraries.

So far, I've signed 3200 coasters. It's taken me three days, three hours a day, and I've gone through five Sharpies.

The printing is a huge pain in the butt, because the brochure is double-sided, but the printer only does single-sided, so everything has to be fed through twice. I spent four hours printing today, and got through 1000 copies. I could have had this done for 6 cents a copy, or $390. I bought a printer, toner, and paper for $332, and I get to keep the printer, so I went the do-it-myself route.

I figure I can be done with the signing and the printing by Thanksgiving.

That still leaves the folding (the brochure is tri-folded) and the stuffing envelopes and adding stamps. I looked into bulk mailing, but to set that up is $300 right off the bat, and postage would be the same.

Besides the 4 grand, I'll be into this project for about 80 hours when I finish.

Is it worth it?

I doubt I'll recoup my money, let alone my time. But I have no way of knowning, because no one has ever hit the library market like this before. I'm in uncharted waters.

This isn't an impersonal postcard. This is actual correspondence from real writers, with readable content. It's funny. It includes a signed coaster. It's presented in an unique way, and it's focused on only two authors, rather than hundreds in a catalogue or review magazine.

This is cheaper than an ad in a big magazine or newspaper. It's direct marketing in it's purest form--selling to a specific target audience that wants to buy books.

I'm assuming 1/3 to 1/2 of these libraries already have something of mine. This will help reinforce my brand, make them aware of my audiobooks, add to name recognition, and perhaps make them take notice of the books they already have sitting on their shelf, which would result in larger orders down the road.

We'll see what happens.

And for all who are interested, here's what the package looks like (I'll add Julia's brochure when she sends me a pdf file)

25 comments:

Hey, it sounds great, I hope it works out for you. By the way, if you are interested, I'm an independent publishers sales rep. for various publishers. I call on K-12 school libraries and public libraries in 3 different states. If you need any help getting the word out there about your stuff let me know, glad to help anyway that I can. You can contact me at captnoir@yahoo.com and I'll help if I can, enjoy your books so glad to help out. Let me know, keep up the books, I can't get enough.

You ever thought of trying to get the coasters into something like an applebees or some bar and grill like that. They could use your coasters and you'd have a lot advertising across a broad spectrum. Thougt I would pass it along, the Bloody Mary coaster is very cool.

I often check out ebooks from my library, but I think I saw an earlier post that said none of your books are available as ebooks. Why is that, any particular reason? While I prefer the old fashioned stuff, I'm looking for ebooks more often these days. As long as my PDA is in my bag, I know I always have a good book with me. I never even have to enter the library - I just search by author, I can download several of their books at a time, and there's nothing to return, the book just expires. All done from the comfort of my house, very handy. I'm also more apt to try an author I'm not familiar with, as the time investment on my part is minimal. If I don't like it, I just switch to a different book. But if I DO like it, then I know it's worth the time & money to buy the real thing.

In terms of "marketing" within the ebook library, there are staff recommendations on the main web page, as well as a list of featured books.

I just re-checked my library. They've finally added Whiskey Sour as a text ebook, but still no Bloody Mary. They've had audio ebooks of both for quite a while. But the audio version isn't compatible with my iPod, and I'm not burning it to a disc, so forget it - I'm only interested in the text versions. Of course, I already have the hardcover of both, so it doesn't really matter at this point...

Would you do another post on what kind of response you're hoping for from the mailing campaign? I notice that the cost per package is roughly 62 cents. You get 55 cents per paperback. That means that even if every library bought a pb copy of your book, you'd be in the whole.

Of course you're more likely to sell hardback books to libraries which are often looking for the newest releases.

I think the coaster is a nice touch, by the way. I was a bit doubtful until I made the drink connection - and then it made sense. It looks great.

I know you said you doubt you'll recoup your money, but surely you've thought about what's going to happen, and what quantified at what response level you'd consider the campaign a 'success'.